TOP TEN Anticipated Movies (8/08)

This month I decided to pick closer releases, rather than many that are still 4+ months away, so that I don't have to write about most of them EVERY month until then. Most of my picks may seem juvenile, but trust me when I say I can't wait for the holidays when we can throw away most of the mainstream junk until January and start to break down and analyze the "serious" junk.

In order of tentative release:

Tropic Thunder (8/13)
Iron Man has come and gone, and almost seems diminutive compared to the juggernaut that is The Dark Knight, but Robert Downey Jr. gets another chance to reign supreme. I hope beyond all hope that despite the rocky presence of Ben Stiller and Jack Black that Tropic Thunder is a cohesively funny film, which can't be said for most of the comedies this year.

Mirrors (8/15)
I don't know about you, but there's something just magical about the way Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer of all fictional people, stands next to a demon mirror and screams "What do you want!?". But who knows, maybe a horror film with Sutherland, Paula Patton, and the literally jaw-breaking Amy Smart will actually be kind of good? Too much to ask?

Hamlet 2 (8/22; limited)
Since we're still a few months away from getting into ultra-serious award fare, Hamlet 2 looks like the oddball little comedy that might score well at the indie theatres. After that box office debacle Around The World In 80 Days remake, can Steve Coogan really take America by storm with "Rock Me Sexy Jesus?"

Disaster Movie (8/29)
My friend Mikey @ The Movies sits through way too much cheap direct-to-DVD fare for me to handle, but sneaking into these bottom of the barrel "parody" films have become almost a rite of passage. We do not condone this kind of filmmaking with our hard-earned money, but damned if we don't peek our heads in and get tortured with 90 minutes of this.

Burn After Reading (9/12)
Clooney! Pitt! Malkovich! McDormand! Swinton! Coens! That's all I'm going to say, lest this gets overhyped.

Righteous Kill (9/12)
This is going to be either really good, or really, really, really, terrible. Consider; Robert De Niro and Al Pacino pair up for the first time on the same screen and only the 2nd time (after Heat) in a film, and written by Russell Gewirtz of the tantalizing Inside Man. But, Pacino hasn't made a decent film since 2002's Insomnia, and Righteous Kill is directed by none other than Pacino's 88 Minutes auteur Jon Avnet. And it co-stars 50 Cent as 'Spider'. Yeah.

Miracle At St. Anna/Blindness/Eagle Eye/Choke (9/26)
This is a cop-out I know, but September 26th looks to be an amazingly strong week in movies, especially in a September filled with uninspiring fare such as Bangkok Dangerous and Lakeview Terrace. We have a serious Spike Lee war movie, a new Fernando Meirelles film (Cidade de Deus, The Constant Gardener), a goofy new Shia LaBeouf flick, and independent theatres will run Sam Rockwell's sex-fest Choke.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (10/3)
All hail the return of Michael Cera, our hero of teenage neurosis. Youth In Revolt comes in December, but for October Cera teams with Charlie Bartlett and 40 Year Old Virgin girl Kat Dennings for a romance set in NYC's underground band scene. Expect plenty of Cera being a badass on the music stage, while stumbling with his words off-stage.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua (10/3)
In the season of the dog (future slated dog movies this winter include Bolt, Marley & Me, and Hotel For Dogs), Beverly Hills Chihuahua, directed by Scooby-Doo fanboy Raja Gosnell, is going to be outright horrible. But damn it if I haven't been caught mumbling "Chihuahua!" in group affairs. Whether it turns out to be pure infantile crap or an infectious holiday hit (I'm leaning towards the former), I know I'll end up seeing this. Natch, I'm actually looking forward to this... yikes.

Max Payne/Flash Of Genius/W. (10/17)
Another cop-out, but what an interesting weekend this presents. First and most popularly is Max Payne, Mark Wahlberg's gory thriller based on the iconic video game. But this same weekend also features a quaint tale about the corporate injustices of a car company over a patent, starring Greg Kinnear, and Oliver Stone's slick-looking, fascinating but questionably needed W.

Future Must-Sees: The Brothers Bloom (10/24), Changeling (10/24), Zack & Miri Make A Porno (10/31), Quantum Of Solace (11/7), Australia (11/14), Harry Potter (11/21), Defiance (12/12), The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (12/19), Yes Man (12/19), Marley & Me (12/25), Revolutionary Road (12/25)